-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Just days after giving birth to her second child , Dr. Jane Dimer drove herself home from the hospital to find her then-husband in bed with another woman . He threw Dimer down the stairs , and she never saw him again until court .

Rihanna was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend , singer Chris Brown , before the Grammys on February 8 .

Dimer , now an obstetrician-gynecologist at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle , Washington , had been in an abusive relationship with her husband in Germany for 4 1/2 years until he pushed her out 11 years ago .

`` Emotionally , the remnants of that stay for a long time , '' she said .

Domestic violence is the most common cause of injury to women ages 15 to 44 , according to the National Institutes of Health . With the entertainment world buzzing about pop sensation Rihanna , whose boyfriend Chris Brown has been formally charged with assaulting her , public interest in domestic violence has been reinvigorated .

Abuse can influence a victim 's future behavior in relationships and even in friendships , depending on whether the victim stays or leaves , said Mark Crawford , a clinical psychologist based in Roswell , Georgia . Those who stay are likely to stop trusting their own perceptions and become passive in both romantic and nonromantic relationships .

Victims who do leave -- which is the healthier choice , Crawford said -- often become over-accommodating because they want to avoid conflict , even verbal disputes , at all costs . Some women wo n't trust people easily , if at all , and wo n't be able to handle even normal expressions of anger . Visit CNNHealth.com , your connection to better living

`` What they need to do when they get out of the relationship is make sure they 're aware of their own anger , and then they can learn how to freely express it in a healthy , normal way , '' he said . `` If somebody 's still having issues 10 years later , they just have n't worked through it . They have n't healed ; they need to do that . ''

New research shows that abuse victims feel the impact of violence long after it occurred . A recent study in the Journal of Women 's Health found that older African-American women who were exposed to high levels of family violence at some point in their lifetimes -- whether by a partner or family member -- are at a greater risk of poor mental and physical health status .

`` Not just ongoing violence , which everybody thinks about , but even when it 's over , there 's something about what happens that seems to have a lingering effect that we do n't quite understand yet , '' said Dr. Anuradha Paranjape , co-author of the study and associate professor at Temple University School of Medicine .

It makes sense that abused women would report worse health , given that people in stressful situations have higher levels of stress hormones , which interfere with immune function , Crawford said .

Other studies show a clear connection between depression and abuse . Adult women who have been abused in a relationship in the past five years have rates of depression 2 1/2 times greater than women who have never been abused , according to a different study of more than 3,000 women . They are also more likely to be socially isolated , said author Amy Bonomi , associate professor at The Ohio State University .

Women who have been abused prior to , but not during , the past five years had depression rates 1 1/2 times greater than those without abuse experience , said Bonomi , who has collaborated with Dimer on research on abused women .

`` People like to sort of think that , ` Well , abuse is just when you have a black eye , you sustain a broken bone , ' '' Bonomi said . `` But we see lots of different effects in other areas , like depression and social isolation , and we 've actually proven that with the data . ''

Women who have suffered violence also seem to have a greater likelihood of substance abuse , but it 's unclear how the two are related -- one does n't necessarily cause the other , and there could be other factors involved , Bonomi said .

A 2008 study of 3,333 women , which Bonomi worked on , found that middle-aged women who suffered child abuse , sexual or other physical abuse , had a greater likelihood of depression , as well as a higher body mass index . These women also spend up to one-third more than average on health care costs . About 34 percent of women in the sample said they had been abused .

While Paranjape 's study found that women with the highest levels of abuse reported having poor health , the same number of diseases were reported among those women as the women in the sample who had less or no abuse . This indicates that there is something else that makes abused women report feeling unwell , she said .

`` When your patient says they do n't feel so good , you might want to think about asking what other issues may be going on , '' she said .

People who have gotten out of a relationship should go through the work of learning what issues set them up in that situation , and reflect on the warning signs , Crawford said .

Experts recommend finding a counselor and other means of support , but people who have been abused should think twice about revealing too much in online support groups , because their abusers could discover what they 're saying , Dimer said . Research has also shown that violence escalates in abusive relationships among couples who go to marriage counseling , she said .

Some women do feel stronger having been through the experience of abuse , Dimer said . She herself found healing through advocacy and research on the subject , she said .

Calling a domestic violence hot line is a good first step for anyone who is experiencing abuse , Dimer said .

`` Whether you 're a pop star or somebody that 's working front lines -- an employee at a grocery store selling the pop star magazine -- you 're at equal risk for having this , '' she said .

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NIH : Domestic violence is the most common cause of injury to women ages 15 to 44

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Study : Abused women more likely to have depression , anxiety , joint pain

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Calling a domestic violence hot line is a good first step for a victim